Health and care workers representatives across Southern Africa met in Gaborone, Botswana on 12 March 2026 under the Southern African Health Sector Unions’ Network and issued a call for stronger public health systems and fairer access to care across the region. While noting progress in areas such as maternal health and the reduction of HIV transmission, the unions warned that large gaps remain between people’s health needs and the resources available, compounded by a serious shortage of health workers. The network called on African governments to honour the Abuja Declaration commitment to allocate at least 15 percent of national budgets to health, strengthen primary health care, and invest in recruiting and retaining health workers under safe and decent working conditions.

Read the communique issued by SAHSUN calling for health financing systems that protect people from high out-of-pocket costs, greater transparency and accountability in public spending, and meaningful participation of trade unions, civil society, and communities in health policy decisions, while urging collective action to defend health as a public good and push back against policies that deepen inequality in access to care.